Jason Arday, former Cambridge professor, told friend he ‘couldn’t go on’ hours before his death

FORMER UNIVERSITY OF Cambridge professor Jason Arday told a friend he felt he “couldn’t go on” hours before he died.

Arday, who resigned after a plagiarism row, was pronounced dead after emergency services were called to his home in Battersea, London, just after 3pm on Friday to reports that a man had been found unresponsive inside a property.

The Metropolitan Police said his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious.

University of Cambridge professor and director of the Autism Research Centre Simon Baron-Cohen told the BBC he spoke to Arday on Friday morning.

Baron-Cohen told Radio 4’s Today programme: “He was being subjected to relentless scrutiny, including ridicule, discrediting absolutely every detail of his life, and he wasn’t coping with the loss of his career, the loss of his reputation, and he felt he couldn’t go on.”

“He used those words in voice notes,” he added.

Baron-Cohen said: “At the heart of all of this was a man who’d been diagnosed in childhood with disabilities that included autism and language delay and learning differences.

“He was a vulnerable child, a vulnerable teenager, and a vulnerable adult, so he needed and deserved safeguarding and support and reasonable adjustment every step of the way.”

Baron-Cohen said Arday was a “kind and gentle” man who had been “bombarded by every media outlet” and used as a “lightning rod” to examine diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.

Arday, a professor of sociology of education who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, quit following a series of media reports alleging he plagiarised his PhD thesis – completed at Liverpool John Moores University – and other research.

Further questions were asked in the press about the truth of other claims he made, including saying he ran 600 miles in six days and that he had raised £5.5 million (€6.44 million) for charity.

An investigation at Liverpool John Moores University cleared Arday of wrongdoing.

Baron-Cohen told the BBC that plagiarism allegations made by another academic, Nathan Cofnas – who has reportedly defined himself as a “race realist” – opened up a “media frenzy”.

He said: “Jason was being used as almost like a lightning rod to examine this policy of DEI, and Jason was bombarded by every media outlet to paint him as a fraud.”

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The cognitive neuroscientist said he had grown concerned about the mental health of Arday, a “vulnerable autistic man” that he could see was struggling.

Baron-Cohen said: “In the last 10 days, I’ve witnessed his mental health getting worse and worse, as the media didn’t stop ridiculing him, humiliating him, discrediting him.

“As I said, yesterday morning, his last voice note was that he just couldn’t go on.

“We need to let the investigations proceed, we need to understand how this tragedy has happened, but there has to be accountability at lots of levels.”

In a statement on Saturday, National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede said Arday had been subjected to “a public and brutal takedown that unleashed a tirade of racism”.

He added: “I don’t believe this was ever simply about ‘professional conduct’ or ‘plagiarism’.

“There is a profound difference between scrutiny and a sustained public campaign that turns an individual into a symbol of everything the right believes is wrong with DEI.

“The effect has been chilling. It tells black people and others from underrepresented backgrounds that entering prominent public positions will make you a target.

“A target not only for criticism of your work, but for a much broader political and cultural backlash.”

Speaking to reporters while on a visit to southwest England, UK prime minister Andy Burnham said it was “not a moment for any rushing to judgement”.

“It’s a tragedy on so many levels, but particularly just for everybody who knew Jason, his family obviously, his friends — we think of them today,” the British leader said.

“It’s a moment for reflection, I would say, reflecting on how how things came to this,” he added.

Over the weekend, Arday cancelled events promoting his forthcoming memoir.

Publisher Simon & Schuster previously said that the book, Great And Unfortunate Things, would be published in the UK on 27 August.

In a statement on Saturday, the publisher said: “Simon & Schuster is deeply saddened by the news of Jason Arday’s tragic death, and we send our condolences to his family during this devastating time.”